Teaching Linux/Unix Basics to Microsoft Junkies?

flupps asks: "I've been asked to hold a two-day crash course in a class of students that currently are studying to become MCSD certified. I'm looking for ideas how to set this up. I was thinking about starting with some general file system descriptions, where to find what files, the man pages, the tab-button, etc. After that move on to some of the daemons and just explain what they do." He's got at least one idea to start with (below), but what must-have skills or demonstrations would you add?

I also plan to set a database program in VB (one of the certificates in the MCSD suite) against a MySQL or Postresql db and show that there are free alternatives that works as well as SQL server.

What would you think could be a good addition to teach them?

This is in no way meant to be a very advanced course, but I want to show some of the excellence of *nix and why you sometimes can save time and stability and maybe make them interested and read up more by themselves afterwards.

Any suggestions very welcome.

Comments

One MS student's experience learning Unix stuff

[Faust7]

Foogtoot 48: THE INSTRUCTION IS OBTUSE
Ataraxia 7: ?
Foogtoot 48: (broken another imaginary monitor with my head)
Foogtoot 48: Also, I am doing pretty well now.
Ataraxia 7: ?
Foogtoot 48: I keep running into technicalities is all, and they were not covered in class even though most of the special functions needed to make this project were covered only in class, is all.
Foogtoot 48: However, when I say "not covered in class" I mean "not covered during lecture while I was listening" which leaves out a fair amount of lecture and also recitation.
Foogtoot 48: CURSE YOU UNIX
Foogtoot 48: Not to mention the month or so during which I didn't start my project, I mean what was that about? It's crazy, but we have no control over these things so why worry?
Foogtoot 48: MAAAAAAAAAAAKE
Foogtoot 48: MMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEE
Ataraxia 7: I sense tension.
Foogtoot 48: Yeah basically.
Ataraxia 7: Not gonna make it?
Foogtoot 48: Except I found out I have a SLIPDAY.
Foogtoot 48: I probably won't make it, because of one last little technicality, but I'm very nearly finished already.
Foogtoot 48: I can clear up that last bit tomorrow hopefully, and then turn it in using a SLIPDAY.
Ataraxia 7: TEMPUS FUGIT
Foogtoot 48: I'M TRYING
Ataraxia 7: Finished yet?
Foogtoot 48: No.
Foogtoot 48: Closer though.
Foogtoot 48: Hmm.
Foogtoot 48: I'm just tremendously close now.
Foogtoot 48: (breakthrough moments ago)
Foogtoot 48: This is a sort of decent shell even.
Ataraxia 7: Not one that meant completion, though.
Foogtoot 48: Nope, and I may not be able to figure that one out on my own.
Foogtoot 48: Taking a crack at it though. VIVE L'AMOUR
Ataraxia 7: 28 minutes and counting.
Foogtoot 48: I REGRET NOTHING
Foogtoot 48: MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE
Ataraxia 7: 26 minutes.
Ataraxia 7: 16, I mean.
Foogtoot 48: I hope you did that deliberately because it was FUNNY.
Ataraxia 7: Oopsie.
Foogtoot 48: I am confused in FIVE WAYS.
Foogtoot 48: No wait, one.
Foogtoot 48: I'm tired and dizzy and I'm not even sure now whether there's a bug left, that's the problem now, not a bug but whether I even know whether there is one.
Ataraxia 7: What about that thing you were going to buckle screaming under and e-mail the TA about?
Foogtoot 48: SHH
Foogtoot 48: It's time to write comments and I'm looking over my functions and I'm not even sure what they do.
Ataraxia 7: 8 minutes.
Ataraxia 7: Though my VCR says 7.
Foogtoot 48: I can't afford to stay up much later.
Foogtoot 48: Well, except in the sense that I can mostly.
Foogtoot 48: Dude just shut my door.
Foogtoot 48: I was all dizzy at him.
Foogtoot 48: I wonder how loud my stereo is anyway.
Foogtoot 48: (these are all comments)
Foogtoot 48: There's like no way I'll comment all this and I don't even know whether it's working right, I threw in some little function called Fun() to fix everything and it might not even be running or it might be running a lot, I have no idea!
Ataraxia 7: 6 minutes.
Foogtoot 48: The final test: I put in a while (1) at the start of Fun() and see if my program locks up!
Foogtoot 48: BRUTE LOOP
Foogtoot 48: OH GOD I RAN IT AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW
Foogtoot 48: DON'T KNOW WHETHER IT LOCKED UP
Foogtoot 48: Never wrote a multi-process program before. Parallel computation is freaky!
Foogtoot 48: YOU DON'T KNOW WHICH END IS UP
Foogtoot 48: Okay well that takes care of that.
Foogtoot 48: SLIPDAY, take me away!

Re:Dont get carried away

[slamb]

I dont mean to cast dispersions on MySQL or PostreSQL, they are very good databases, but not in the same league as SQLServer, IMHO.

I'm also interested in hearing why you think Microsoft SQL Server is better than PostgreSQL. I've used PostgreSQL and Oracle and feel that PostgreSQL is as good or better in many situations. I'd be surprised if MS SQL Server had any real advantages over Oracle (except price, and it can't compete with PostgreSQL there).

Oracle's two big advantages, as I see them, are:

• Large database features. There are a million features that contribute to this. Manufactured views, clustering, different tablespaces, quotas, replication, etc.
• Extra software. Stuff like Oracle Forms & Reports is really great for rapid development. I haven't seen anything cross-database or PostgreSQL-specific that can match that at all.

On the other hand, PostgreSQL has:

• Ease of administration. Oracle administration seems really, really complicated, even when you don't use any of those extra features. [*] PostgreSQL is very simple to set up correctly and keep running correctly. In my experience, keeping a database healthy is little more than doing a vacuum analyze in a cron job or something.
• Lower cost. You can get the database free, with volunteer support from the mailing lists. If you want paid support, you can buy it as the RedHat Database, still with a much lower cost than Oracle.
• Open source. I don't think I need to say here why this is good.

Now, MySQL...I don't understand why you'd use it when PostgreSQL is available. I certainly won't take quite as seriously anyone who advocates using it. It's not even a relational database, by definition. See Codd's Rule #10, for example. (I don't think any database supports all of these rules perfectly, but MySQL in particular is quite sad.)

[*] - I don't actually administer an Oracle database. I just use one and try to have some understanding of how its administration is done.

Re:the best combo IMHO

[interiot]

Yes. There are many such things that the unix dinosaur tells me "used to be required" because they were running on circa 1970 machines, but which I've been getting away with without thinking about since I was born.

Re:the best combo IMHO

[quintessent]

There's nothing like a clueless moderator to brighten you're day.

And yes, this one is off-topic.